PhD scholarship: Data quality assurance in digitalization of urban water management

Summary

Enrolment status	New students
Student type	Domestic students, International students
Level of study	Higher Degree by Research
Study area	Engineering and Computing
HDR funding type	Living stipend scholarship, Tuition Scholarship
Scholarship value	$28,597 per annum (2021 rate), indexed annually
Scholarship duration	3.5 years with the possibility of 1 extension in line with UQ and RTP Scholarship Policy
Opening date	26 July 2021
Closing date	16 August 2021

Description

Supervisor – Professor Zhiguo Yuan

Sewer systems are among the most critical infrastructure assets for modern urban societies. Urban sewer networks collect and transport domestic and industrial wastewaters to wastewater treatment plants for pollutant removal prior to reuse or environmental discharge, thus protecting both public and environmental health.

Effective sewer management has been to date hindered by the scarcity of sewer data, particularly real-time data. The rapid development of IoT sensors enable their wide deployment in sewer networks. Consequently, the use of IoT sensors allows the collection of much larger volumes of data, orders of magnitude larger compared to traditional sensors. Such large data sets enable machine learning or data-driven modelling, to provide support to online control or off-line decision making.

Led by Prof Zhiguo Yuan AM, an ARC Australian Laureate Fellow, the sewer research team at ACWEB is undertaking research on the digitalisation of sewer management. The research focuses on on-line sensing, data analytics and on-line control.

Sensors are often subject to noise, disturbances, and faults, leading to erroneous data. An opportunity exists for an outstanding PhD candidate to develop advanced algorithms for data quality assurance. This will involve the use of machine learning with support from digital twins. The candidate will be jointly supervised by sewer experts and data scientists. Ample opportunities exist for the student to work with water utilities.

A working knowledge of urban water systems would be of benefit to someone working on this project.

Research environment

The Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology (ACWEB) (previously known as Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC) is an internationally renowned centre of excellence in innovative water technology and management. We deliver six interlinked programs, including next generation urban water technologies, integrated urban water management, sewer management, nexus of urban water, health and environment, resource efficient agri-industry and environmental biotechnology.

The centre has strong collaborative linkages with industry and an outstanding academic publication record, publishing on average more than 100 papers a year in high quality journals including the most prestigious multidisciplinary journals including Nature and Science, and top discipline journals such as Water Research and Environmental Science and Technology.

Eligibility

To be eligible, you must meet the entry requirements for a higher degree by research .

This scholarship is open to Australian citizens, permanent residents and International students who are able to be in Australia at the time of commencement. With current border restrictions to Australia in place international offshore applicants should consider a commencement of July 2022.

How to apply
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